


Kagome's Creed

by MysteryGirl22



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale, Psycho-Pass, Romeo x Juliet (Anime), Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi | Spirited Away, 闇の末裔 | Yami No Matsuei | Descendants of Darkness
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - 1920s, Family, Friendship, Multi, Mystery, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:41:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29172819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MysteryGirl22/pseuds/MysteryGirl22
Summary: Kagome Higurashi has led quite the interesting life, and there's no telling where the path ahead may turn next.
Relationships: Higurashi Kagome/InuYasha, Miroku/Sango (InuYasha), Tsuzuki/Maria Wong
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

_ Spring, 1905 _

Arabella May Tippin had been born exactly fifty years earlier, and had died exactly twelve years later. Kagome figured that was what had always drawn her to the small cemetery tucked away in a tiny valley on her family’s island, seeing those dates on the child-sized granite headstone, the first in a line of four, around which had been planted the most beautiful pink and white lavender. Every year on her birthday, she would slip away as her party was winding down and come here, sitting on her knees in the long grass and just enjoying the peace.

That was how it had started, anyway. Since she had turned eight, Kagome was sure she had begun to see flashes of another child, nothing more than the end of a braid around the corner of a dark hall, or the vaguest hint of a reflection behind her in the night. The smell of lavender would drift beneath her door during storms, providing her with an odd mix of comfort during the swirling, howling rain and wind, and fear that somebody uninvited had taken up residence in her family’s home.

“Kagome!”

Startled, she tried to jump to her feet, only to be tangled in the long skirt of her dress. A steady pair of hands caught under her arms, and she looked to see blue-gray eyes, thin lips curled in a teasing smirk and short, messy hair as black as hers.

“Mother’s been looking for you,” Shinya propped her up as she smoothed herself out. He was her elder half-brother, his mother having died while giving birth to him. He was three when his father had married her mother, four when their sister Kikyo had come along, then six when she had been born. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, his gaze shifting to the grave. “You’ve been out here every day for the last two weeks.”

Kagome crossed her arms and pouted at him.

“Amanda has the same birthday as me,” she said. “And she’s the only one who doesn’t make fun of me!”

Shinya chuckled and swept her up, the only one still able to carry her.

“You’re a weird kid, but there’s nothing wrong with that,” he glanced down and smiled at her. “Your ‘normal’ is just different than most people’s.”

He slipped on loose gravel as he climbed up the hill, steep but not overly so, making her whimper and cling to him all the more tightly. He let out a breath when they reached the top, and paused to stare out across the open swath of land between them and the old Higurashi manor, one of only three buildings on the whole of the island. The second was the massive barn that housed Kikyo’s veritable herd of horses, the last an old carriage house that had become the home of their head housekeeper, her husband and their son.

Shinya didn’t put her down until they reached the old stone drive that led to their door, passing through a massive wrought iron gate curled over in fragrant wisteria vines. The brick portion of the wall was waist high to adults, the rest black metal spears that stood tall overhead, held together by evenly spaced rows of iron. Kagome often imagined their home was a palace, the fence an army keeping guard over the prince and his two sister princesses.

“Who lived in the house before us, Shinya?” she asked, staring up at the looming eaves, shielding her eyes as the sun glinted off the windows, polished like mirrors. He ran a hand through his hair, then rubbed the back of his neck.

“All I know is they sold the place after a flood or something, guess it was just too much of a loss for them.”

Ice shot up her leg, her foot becoming rooted to the threshold. Her eyes locked on a shadow caught in a stream of sunlight, the faintest shimmer of a face with eyes that burned straight to her core.

“I’ll take you into town tomorrow and we can ask around,” Shinya’s voice broke through the trance. “Someone should know something.”

She nodded absently, a cold shiver dribbling through her veins as the face faded from view, the spell over her limbs finally broken. She followed him into the kitchen and sat at the table, still wondering hopelessly who that little girl she had seen might be, and why she had chosen now to make herself known.


	2. Chapter 2

Kagome ducked under her covers as rain lashed at the windows, the wind and thunder screaming as though Mother Nature herself were furious that she had dared to ask her questions. Part of her figured it was just as well, given that Shinya had twisted his knee after missing a stair in the dark. The doctor that had arrived early that morning had said he was lucky he hadn’t broken his neck in his tumble to the first floor. She also thought she might as well see what their own library, and maybe their staff, had to offer before subjecting herself to the several-hours’ ride into the city. A the very least, it would mean less disappointment if she happened to not find anything.

She kicked off the blanket and hopped out of bed, changing quickly so she wouldn’t get a lecture from the older maids about traipsing around at noon in her pajamas and robe. She might as well have been naked with how they carried on sometimes.

The lights flickered, wall hangings and curtains fluttering in drafts. Candles were being lit throughout the house, she knew, as there was a good chance the electricity would fail in such a storm.The small kerosene lamp Mr. Asato Tsuzuki had given her wavered in her grip as her arm trembled; she set it down quickly on a hall table and covered her ears as lightning nearly blinded her, the crash of thunder overhead reminding her of cannon fire.

 _It’s just noise,_ she tried to tell herself. _It’s loud, but it can’t hurt you._

She gulped down a breath and picked up her lantern, walking quickly until she reached the library. The room was as tall as two floors with doorways on each level, one for every hall. Kikyo had been adamant that she learn the classification of books by heart, and now she was grateful for those tedious lessons as she made her way straight to the history section, only to stop in her tracks as she realized she had no idea where exactly to start looking.

 _Maybe I can find something about the island here._ It would be a place to start, at the very least. She had just begun to scan the shelves at eye level when she heard footsteps, peeking around the case to see Mr. Tsuzuki in the next section, literature, she was sure. He was a tall, handsome man with a softly pointed face and wide, strong shoulders that sloped a bit; his messy brown hair brushed his sharp nose, his eyes a bright amethyst she had never seen anywhere else. The thick book in his hands was one she’d seen him reading a hundred times, The Woman in White.

“Mr. Tsuzuki?”

He glanced up, his unfastened cuff spilling over his hand as he set the book down on a nearby table.

“Well, hello, Kagome,” he gave her a warm, friendly smile. He and his wife, Maria, had become their second set of parents, their son, Kurosaki, as much her older brother as Shinya was. “What brings you in here today?”

They both flinched when thunder boomed again, he had admitted to hating it as much as she did. Her fingers tightened on her lantern as she stared up at the rest of the shelves, towering high overhead. The ladders on wheels were also much too heavy for her to move alone.

“I want to know who lived here before us,” she told him. “I found an old cemetery and there’s a girl in there who has my birthday.”

He looked thoughtfully at her, then nodded, as though agreeing with something she hadn’t heard.

“You must mean Arabella. Her parents built the estate, and then your grandparents bought it from them when they left.”

She followed him back into the history shelves, watching as he scanned a row well above her head, then plucked out a book that at least looked fifty years old.

“I found this in the carriage house after your father invited me to work here,” he continued. “The original handyman wrote about everything that happened here, big or small.”

They went back to the table, and she climbed up on the bench beside him. The book was definitely a journal, with a brown leather cover that was starting to crack at the spine, worn smooth along the outer edge from long, consistent use. The buckle that kept it securely shut was tarnished, the edges of the small hole in the strap cracked as well.

The pages inside were yellowed with age, the ink of the spidery handwriting still as dark as when the words had been written.

“I read this thing cover to cover before I showed it to your parents,” he turned each frayed page carefully, as though they could fall out or tear at any second. “Whatever you’re looking for is sure to be here somewhere.”


	3. Chapter 3

It wasn’t clear how long the Tippin family had owned the island, but they had lived there until selling the land to Kagome’s grandparents, after which they had apparently dropped right off the map. Amanda Marie had been the second of four daughters, each birth almost exactly two years apart, which had always struck Mr. Tsuzuki as odd. The handyman noted that Margarite Tippin was an eccentric woman, but that she had also been an incredible mother. Aaron, the girls’ father, had run his architectural business from their home, a cabin that had been expanded with each subsequent generation of the family.

“But there’s no cabins on the island,” Kagome noted curiously, sitting on her knees on the bench. Mr. Tsuzuki nodded.

“There aren’t now,” he agreed. “This estate wasn’t built until your grandparents decided they were going to live here. The cabin and barn had been so severely damaged that there was hardly enough to salvage, forget rebuilding.”

He turned the page and lightly ran the pad of his thumb down the ragged, yellowed edge. The serious look on his face was one she so rarely saw—eyes narrowed, brow furrowed, lips turned in a frown. She found herself unable to speak; she could hardly move, in fact, even her heart going momentarily still before thudding painfully back to life against her ribs.

Her gaze was locked on the face hovering just above the book, a little girl’s face with curly, curly hair as brassy as candlesticks, eyes that looked like her mother’s sapphire earrings, lips and cheeks pink as the flowers that bloomed every spring around a lonely little grave.

 _It’s you,_ Kagome whispered in her head, surprised to find she could hardly do that much. The apparition’s face was stony and cold, a look far too old for any child.

 _“Get out,”_ another voice returned, an echo both burning hot and frosty cold. “ _Get out, get out, get out!”_

Kagome toppled back when that face lurched sharply toward her, the expression unchanged, the head of curls undisturbed by the motion. Her dress was pale blue with a small white apron, purple flowers and green vines stitched around the edge, along with the cuffs, collar and hem of her dress. Her plain black shoes, when they emerged from the pages, both pressed down on Mr. Tsuzuki’s hands and passed right through them, his very being apparently frozen in time.

_“Get out, get out, get out!”_

The air leaked from the room, the flicker of a dozen flames stilling, and even the wind, thunder and rain seemed to come to a halt. Kagome’s heart pounded at the back of her throat, vibrating through the bile that began to well there, a sensation so painful to swallow that she nearly choked.

_“Get out!”_

Before the girl could move a step, her stare was drawn away. The way her head jerked about made it seem as though the action fought against her own will. A violent shiver pierced the oppressing stillness, and Kagome gasped a breath as air and sound returned, although still greatly muted. Mr. Tsuzuki still would not move.

 _“You will not hurt them,”_ a different voice ordered, much the same, yet different than the blond spirit’s. This new entity stood fast at the top of a bookcase, her own dress a light, buttery yellow that matched the bows at the ends of her auburn braids, her apron, cuffs and hem embroidered with flighted birds in sky blue thread. _I won’t let you!_

The blond girl glowered daggers at her, sound and silence warring as their cold, unblinking gazes locked, one set of eyes as green as the other was blue. Kagome held her breath, curled up and barely peeking past the protective circle of her arms, a scream getting caught in the tightness of her throat when every candle snapped out, as though each flame had been pinched by unseen fingers.

That quickly, sound and motion returned, and the candles slowly came to glow again. The ghostly children had disappeared, without a trace of a footprint or damage, as though they had never been there at all. Carefully, she got to her feet, eyeing every surface as she straightened out her dress, climbing on the bench to see the book, and Mr. Tsuzuki, were just as they had been left. He shook his head fast, blinked and looked around, then turned to the table and, once again, began to read.


	4. Chapter 4

Arabella May had been the oldest Tippin girl, and thought to be the most beautiful child in the city. Her three sisters, Amanda Marie, and the twins, Amelia Michelle and Arionna Madison, had been the only ones to come close, and she, by all accounts, had hated it. The journal detailed the side of Arabella that nobody outside the household had been permitted to see, or even discuss—a mean, selfish child who resented her younger siblings simply for being born.

“Times being what they were, Arron and Margarite were more concerned about preserving the family’s status and reputation,” Mr. Tsuzuki explained as he turned the page. “They paid their staff twice what was usual in the hopes they’d ignore Arabella’s behavior, and keep the gossip inside the estate.”

Kagome leaned over the edge of the table, adjusting the lantern.

“I don’t think overhearing that would have made her stop,” she commented. He shook his head.

“You’d be right. All the girls loved to wander around the house on stormy nights when their parents and the staff were asleep, but Arabella took it a step further than that.”

He set down the book and pointed to a detailed sketch, one of several she had glimpsed while he’d turned through the journal. The pendent was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen: a swirl and twist of gold that caged a polished tiger’s eye stone, the colors still so vivid it seemed as though she could pluck the necklace right off the page.

“This was their mother’s prized possession, the first piece she had ever made; she was a jewelry designer,” he explained. “And eventually became one of the best in the city.”

Kagome swallowed hard, she was sure she wouldn’t like where the story would go next.

“Arabella had begged her mother for the necklace since she’d first seen it, but Margarite would just say she’d have to wait until she was older. Eventually, Arabella just got tired of waiting.”

He swallowed hard and rubbed the front of his neck; Kagome didn’t think she had ever seen him so scared.

“It happened on one of those stormy nights; Amanda and the twins had gone up to the attic, and Arabella later admitted to locking them up there. She didn’t want them to tell on her.”

He drummed his fingers on the open page, his jaw clenching. Kagome could imagine Arabella sneaking through the dark hallways, giggling to herself as she reveled in her mischief, how close at hand she thought her prize must have been. Mr. Tsuzuki quickly read through a few lines, and the look on his face as he finished frightened her.

“Arabella managed to get the necklace without waking her parents, but it didn’t take long for her mother to realize it was missing.”

He pointed to a spot in the middle of the page, and Kagome wondered how he could decipher the close, looping handwriting.

“She found it half under her jewelry chest the next morning, and chose to believe it had somehow fallen out, rather than admit her own daughter had tried to steal from her. Things were peaceful afterward, as Arabella was too busy thinking about her upcoming birthday party to cause much trouble. Of course, that didn’t last long.”

Kagome shivered, feeling as though a set of angry, jealous eyes were cutting into her back, the fear trailing right to her blood. She wanted to tell him to stop reading, that she had heard enough, but she could only bring herself to scoot closer to him, wishing she had the old shawl of her mother’s she would pull over her head when she was afraid. Mr. Tsuzuki did something he hadn’t in years, pulling her onto his lap before bringing the book to the edge of the table, as though he took as much comfort from her presence as she did from his.

“The party had ended, the guests had left and the staff had cleaned up. Arabella was furious her mother hadn’t given her the necklace, and her sisters had retreated back to the attic, about as far from her room as they could get.”

He swallowed hard, and she felt his heart thump against her back. There were only a few pages left in the journal, until she learned how the lives of the Tippin family had forever been changed.

“That night was the worst storm the area had seen in years; the girls were given hot tea dosed with a mild sedative, in the hopes they’d be able to sleep through it.”

He sighed heavily, and slowly shook his head.

“No one’s entirely sure how the fire started, but it’s believed one of them may have knocked over the candle left burning by their bed. By the time any adults realized what had happened, it was already too late. Those who managed to escape could only watch as the place went up in flames, even with the storm.”

At least, he closed the journal and set it aside, picked her up and set her on the edge of the table. His gaze was serious, piercing.

“I know you’ve started to see things around the house, Kagome,” he said. “Everyone who’s grown up here since the Tippins sold this land have, and it always started when they were your age.”


	5. Chapter 5

Kagome wondered how her jaw was still attached. She wasn’t the first one to realize spirits dwelled there? Shinya, Kikyo and Kurosaki had all seen them, too?

“They don’t like to believe what they saw was real,” Mr. Tsuzuki continued, his tone still quiet. “They all told themselves it would just go away if they kept ignoring it, but it’s clear now that’s not going to happen.”

There had to be some way to stop it, though, she thought, there always was in the stories she’d read. She jumped to the floor and sprinted to another section of the library, dedicated to the books her grandfather had loved to collect, all about the world he loved to say was just an unseen layer of their own.

She tried not to scream when the lights flickered out once again, silence taking over as a preternatural cold seeped into her very bones. This time, two pale little faces appeared, each framed with bouncy black curls, her rapt attention drawn to the four brown eyes that were so much like hers.

 _“You won’t find what you need here,”_ one of them spoke, though she couldn’t tell which. The full, bloodless lips hadn’t moved on either faintly glowing white face. “ _Our sister won’t leave, and neither can we.”_

Kagome tried to gulp down her fear. This wasn’t about ridding her home of unwanted guests, it was about helping four little girls find the peace they had lost so many years ago.

“I still want to help,” she assured them, though her voice was shaking. “You guys don’t deserve to be trapped here!”

The twins barely glanced at one another, their eyes hardly shifting away from her.

 _“There’s only one thing that might help,”_ another voice said, as a third sprit appeared. Amanda, with her auburn braids. “ _Our mama took the necklace, our parents left and never came back.”_

Kagome looked at her. Putting a stop to all of this couldn’t really be so straightforward, could it? She opened her mouth to speak, only for a razor-edged wind to tear through the room, though she knew all the windows were locked tight. She shielded her face, peeked through her fingers to see Arabella, her own contorted in unearthly rage.

 _“Mama was a thief,”_ she snapped vehemently. “ _That necklace was supposed to be_ mine, _and she took it!”_

Kagome stepped back from her, but forced her hands down to her sides; she had always heard ghosts had less power if you didn’t show fear.

“I’ll find your parents _and_ the necklace,” she said, trying to keep her voice from shaking. “I’ll bring them back here, I promise!”

Arabella simply snorted, and there was an odd sound as she crossed her arms, her dress still faintly visible through them.

 _“Nobody can do that,”_ she taunted. “ _Especially a grubby girl like you.”_

Her eyes hardened further, and the color seemed to drain from them.

 _“You’re no better than they are,”_ she went on. “ _You took our island!”_

Kagome shook her head.

“Your parents sold it to my grandparents, we didn’t steal anything. It was just after the fire,” she went on. “It hurt them too much to stay here after they lost all of you, so they left!”

Arabella’s scowl deepened.

 _“Liar,”_ she screamed. _“Liar, liar!”_

She started forward, only to stop in her ethereal tracks when Amanda darted between them.

 _“I won’t let you hurt anyone else,”_ she snapped at her sister, her stern face visible through the back of her hair. “ _You’re the reason we’re all gone, Arabella, and you’re the reason we can’t leave this place!”_

Arabella was taken utterly aback, her stare blank and confused. She shook it off quickly, the smaller books nearby bouncing briefly on their shelves, surprising Kagome when she simply melted into the floor without another word.

Kagome breathed a sigh of relief, hardly noticing the chill in the air as she turned to the other Tippin girls.

“Why won’t Arabella leave,” she asked. “Why does her choice affect all of you?”

Amanda toyed with her fingers, her teeth worrying her lower lip.

 _“Mama always made us promise to keep together,”_ she explained. “ _We can’t break it even now, when we’re like this.”_

Kagome swallowed.

“I’m going to try and find that necklace,” she said. “Or at least your parents, I’m going to try and fix all of this.”

The three spirits gazed at her hopefully, then one of the twins stepped cautiously forward, a green and black dress with black shoes materializing out of thin air.

 _“I heard where Mama and Papa went,”_ she said, her lips still somehow sealed. _“They talked about a farm with a big house, far away in the country. They grow rice there.”_

It wasn’t much, Kagome figured, but it was at least a starting point. She just hoped she’d have at least Mr. Tsuzuki’s help in solving this mystery, and wondered why she felt strangely bad for accepting the task. These girls were trapped, separated from their family for decades, and now she was their only hope to fix things.

“I’ll do my best,” she tried to assure them. “I’ll do whatever it takes to help all of you, I promise.”


	6. Chapter 6

Kagome was sure she’d go blind before she found what she was looking for. Mr. Tsuzuki had found her passed out on the floor in the library, in the same spot where she had sworn to find what was left of the Tippin family. He’d looked skeptical when she had gone back to explain the situation the next afternoon, but had nevertheless agreed to help however he could. He’d spent the next few days collecting the records he knew had to do with the old owners of the island, using his little free time to go through them with her. That still left large swaths of the day where she was left to pore over the various volumes on her own.

She closed the cover with a huff and pushed the book aside, then scrambled to catch the pile that threatened to topple. It was already the third book she had looked through that morning, the latest in a growing string of dead ends. She glanced over the ones left to go, part of her beginning to wonder if the endeavor were just a lost cause.

“Looks like you’re busy.”

She all but fell off her seat when Kurosaki appeared, the only child of Mr. Tsuzuki and his wife, Maria. He was eight months older than her, pale with dirty blond hair and odd green eyes, almost like the skin of an apple. He climbed up on the bench beside her and stared impassively at the tomes, the scribbled over notebook she had tried and failed to keep notes in.

“I’m trying to find out what happened to Mr. and Mrs. Tippin,” she explained, debating whether to reach for another book. It was always more difficult to focus when he was around. “Their daughters are all buried here, but they sold the island and moved, I want to know where they went.”

He looked at her strangely, and as usual, it felt like he was staring straight into her bones.

“I hear Father talk about them sometimes,” he said at last, his voice quiet and flat as always. “They sold the island because they couldn’t handle what started happening after the fire.”

_He must mean Arabella and her sisters._

Just how quickly had the four of them begun haunting what was left of their estate? Had their parents tried to settle their spirits at all before leaving? She was surprised to hear him gulp, even more to see him shiver, as slight as it was.

“I used to think all that ghost stuff was silly, but then I started seeing them, too.”

“‘Too’? You mean Kikyo and Shinya really did see them before?”

He nodded.

“Things have gotten worse lately, though, I think because most of us can see them now.”

It did make sense in a way, now that she thought about it. There were stories of spirits who drew power from children, and the more who could see them, the faster they gained strength. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know what would happen once Arabella felt ready to really cause trouble.

“I saw them here in the library the other day,” she revealed, now that she knew he wouldn’t call her crazy. “Amanda, Amelia and Arionna told me what I had to do to set them free, and it starts with bringing their parents back here.”

He looked uneasy again, then shook it off, and she suddenly had the feeling that he was trying to hide something from her.

“Mother and I have to go into town tomorrow, the library might have something.”

She winced, thinking now that Shinya’s fall hadn’t been as much of an accident as they had assumed. Was Arabella really so fixated on chasing people away from her home that she was willing to try and kill them?

“I just hope we can actually find something,” she said. “I don’t want them to be trapped here any longer than they have to.”

She expected one of the girls to return again, as they always seemed to when the subject came up, but they had been strangely absent since Mr. Tsuzuki had read her the journal, as though they knew she was sure what she’d have to do. That didn’t explain Arabella, though, and she couldn’t help but worry that the angry spirit had something particularly nasty in store, and was waiting for the day her parents would return home.

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be posting one chapter a week, and as you can probably tell, it's going to get crazy!


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